At the close of Monday’s post, I asked if you thought Dotty would receive the $20 she asked for in a telegram sent from Monterey, California.

Here’s your answer:

“Thanks for replying so promptly to my telegram. I got the money at 9:30 this morning (1:30 your time).” Upon receiving the wired $20, Dotty quickly wrote a letter home thanking her stepmother for sending it. The letter was on its way to Bridgeport by noon the same day.

This wasn’t the only time that Dotty asked for money either, as this piece of evidence from the box shows:

On November 26, Dotty’s stepmother again wired $20 to Dotty. Twenty dollars wasn’t a small sum in 1929. As I wrote on Monday, it would be well over $200 today. Can you imagine just asking for $200?

Now before you get to thinking that Dotty’s family was extremely wealthy, remember that Dotty (as well as Edie and Ev) was a stenographer and had been for at least five years prior to the start of the trip. Could it have been her money?

As Dotty writes from Monterey after receiving the first $20, “Take the money for sending it out of what I left with you, don’t forget.” Dotty left money at home, likely preventing her from spending all of her money and leaving her with some to come home to. She likely had a cushion of how much extra money she could ask for over the course of the trip, and these two instances are examples of that. I think it was a smart idea, don’t you?

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Also, just in case you were wondering, here is what the back of that Money Order receipt looks like.